'Sconset's New Year's Whale, 1998

The day before New Year's Eve 1997, a sick sperm whale floundered along shore at Low Beach in 'Sconset. By New Year s Day, government officials, scientists, volunteers, and concerned islanders — in short, the whole community — rushed to the scene to witness the creature's tragic struggles, in which it managed to breakaway from the beach several times before succumbing to its evident illness. Specialists and representatives of major state and federal organizations were on the scene, while scientists from the New England Aquarium performed the necropsy. Meanwhile, with the help of heavy equipment made available by local contractors, Whaling Museum staff and volunteers set about cutting in the whale using historic whaling tools from the NHA collection, and saving specimens of the clear spermaceti liquid from the head case.The 1998 "New Year's Whale" seemed to many to be a sign linking modern Nantucketers to the island's historic whaling past, and acted as a timely reminder of the industry that had made the island great.

The NHA was granted permission by the National Marine Fisheries Service to become the caretaker of the sperm whale's skeleton, which now hangs in Gosnell Hall as the centerpiece of the Nantucket Whaling Museum.

Sperm whale stranding, January 1998.
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Whale skeleton in Whaling Museum 2007
Photo by Vanderwerck

A digital exhibition by the Nantucket Historical Association